cannabisnews.com: Ron Paul - Legalize Hemp in Arizona
Ron Paul - Legalize Hemp in Arizona
Posted by CN Staff on May 30, 2007 at 12:34:24 PT
Staff Reports - Free-Market News Network
Source: FreeMarketNews.com
Arizona -- Sources close to the campaign of presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex) said that the congressman would probably choose the state of Arizona in which to renew his call for the legalization of industrial marijuana - “hemp.” A call to legalize hemp would be attractive to Arizona’s farmers. This stance, combined with anti-war position, might make Ron Paul attractive to a large slice of GOP voters not enamored with many traditional “conservative” positions.
Arizona’s large farming community is said to be in favor of the legalization of an additional cash crop such as hemp. There is a large difference between industrial hemp - which contains little of the active ingredient that gets users “high - and marijuana that is actively cultivated for illegal drug use. “The differences between Ron Paul and other candidates are gradually emerging,” said one observer of the campaign. “On one side you have modern day conservative-leaders like John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, and on the other a constitutional conservative Ron Paul. Contrasting their positions gives you a good idea of how far the American leadership has strayed from the Constitution.”According to this observer, “If Ron Paul runs in Arizona on legalizing hemp production, that gives him a leg up over other GOP candidates who would never advocate such a thing.” There is already a formidable anti-war sentiment in Arizona that Ron Paul can capitalize on as well, this observer notes.Ron Paul believes that the Constitution enumerates Federal powers, and that all others are relegated to the states. This is a correct understanding of the Constitution, according to many scholars, though not ones who believe it is a “living document.” For this reason, Ron Paul believes Federal drug laws are unconstitutional, besides being a boondoggle of massive proportions. There is, in fact, no hard evidence that the Federal “war on drugs” has been effective at stemming the flow of drugs and drug use in America or in the West in general. It has, however, swelled the ranks of police officers, militarized them through the creation of “SWAT” teams and stuffed America’s prisons to overflowing. Ron Paul would leave drug legislation and enforcement to the states.Ron Paul has already co-sponsored an industrial hemp bill. It was described by http://www.StopTheDrugWar.org as follows:http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/473/ron_paul_introduces_hemp_bill_US_congress“Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul has filed a bill that would legalize hemp farming in the United States. This marks the second time Rep. Paul has filed this bill, but it went nowhere in the last Congress. The bill, HR 1009, would allow domestic hemp manufacturers to buy their hemp from American producers. Currently, US law bars the production of industrial hemp, and American manufacturers have to import their hemp from other countries.“This time around, Rep. Paul has nine cosponsors, all Democrats. They are Representatives Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Barney Frank (D-MA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Jim McDermott (D-WA), George Miller (D-CA), Pete Stark (D-CA) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)."’It is indefensible that the United States government prevents American farmers from growing this crop. The prohibition subsidizes farmers in countries from Canada to Romania by eliminating American competition and encourages jobs in industries such as food, auto parts and clothing that utilize industrial hemp to be located overseas instead of in the United States,’ said Rep. Paul. ‘By passing the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, the House of Representatives can help American farmers and reduce the trade deficit - all without spending a single taxpayer dollar.’"Wikipedia describes hemp and its cultivation, as follows:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp"Hemp (from Old English hænep, see cannabis (etymology)) is the common name for plants belonging to the genus Cannabis, although the term is often used to refer only to Cannabis strains cultivated for industrial (non-drug) use. Licenses for hemp cultivation are issued in the European Union and Canada. In the United Kingdom, these licenses are issued by the Home Office under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. When grown for non-drug purposes hemp is often called industrial hemp, and a common product is fiber for use in a wide variety of products. Feral hemp or ditch weed is usually naturalized fiber or oilseed strains of Cannabis that have escaped from cultivation and are self-seeding." Source: FreeMarketNews.com (US)Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Copyright: 2007 Free-Market Feedback: http://tinyurl.com/2el38zWebsite: http://www.freemarketnews.com/CannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by mayan on May 30, 2007 at 16:56:51 PT
America's Hope
What a man. What a candidate. Second to none.
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Comment #6 posted by ekim on May 30, 2007 at 15:05:41 PT
stand up for hemp willie&neilwrite a song about it
today on c-span tom dashcle and bob dole were on to talk about the new farm bill and how food fiber feed and fuel are the new four catch words. when question time came -- not one word about Hemp was mentioned. to bad that ron paul could not have had a rep of his bill there on c-span to pose the hemp bill.
where is willie and the farm aid [people] every one that wants hemp to be grown by US farmers must stand and be counted.
now it the time billions will be spent on the farm bill, with cellulose ethanol getting a huge chunk of the money. hemp must be included for bio-fuel feed stock.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 30, 2007 at 13:19:10 PT
DjLoTi
I look at Democrats and Republicans as groups of people that need to work with each other. The philosophy of both parties are different but they have common denominators. A good person who cares is a good person who cares no matter what party.
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Comment #4 posted by DjLoTi on May 30, 2007 at 13:04:19 PT:
I gotta admit...
I like this article. This guy has potential. Potential to *save* America. I thought I was a republican... before I paid attention. “This time around, Rep. Paul has nine cosponsors, all Democrats."We're going to need help from the Dems if we want to beat the neocons and the mainstream media and the rest of the people trying to control our lives.. all of American lives... and make lots of money.If Ron Paul doesn't with the Republican Primary, you can kiss the chance goodbye. It's in 6 months. If he doesn't win that, he can't be voted for president as a republican. He may run as an independent, however he has said he will not do that.Get at me if you have any questions
http://www.myspace.com/djloti
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 30, 2007 at 12:56:11 PT
Sam
I think they want Senator Clinton because they have many skeletons in their closet the same as the Republicans do.Becoming a politician would be like being part of a big and judgmental family because most of them bow to big corporations.
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on May 30, 2007 at 12:45:25 PT
Bill Maher
Ron Paul was actually on Bill Maher last night, they showed footage from the debate (where Rudy's mike was magically turned on in the middle of Ron Paul's designated time to speak). Ben Affleck was also on, before Ron Paul came out Affleck was talking about his fury at Congressional Democrats. He said the big reason why they finally passed the war funding was because if they sent the bill back to Bush with troop withdrawal deadlines, Bush would have criticized them and they all would have had to remain in DC over the Memorial Day vacation to respond & defend themselves.I think another big reason is that the Dems need to keep the war going until the 2008 election. If the troops were pulled out before the election and things go well, that will take away the Dems biggest issue in the 08 election.Many Dems voted against the bill anyway. The ones that did not are evil liars, in my opinion. They do care more about their weekends and scoring political points that war & death.Another interesting thing they discussed is that the Republicans are focusing now on wiping out Edwards as a candidate (manufactured $400 haircut scandal). They said that the Republicans want Hilary as the candidate because they think they can beat her easily. Which leads back to Obama, you can see why he asked for Secret Service protection. Or maybe the Repubs think they can beat him because he's black. This is probably the case.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 30, 2007 at 12:35:48 PT
Ron Paul and Democrats
Maybe we will get somewhere.
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